site.btaNational Council for Tripartite Cooperation Does Not Reach Consensus on Draft Medical Expertise Ordinance Revisions

The National Council for Tripartite Cooperation failed to reach a consensus on the draft government decree to amend and supplement the Ordinance on Medical Expertise, which was discussed by the social partners on Thursday.

Council Chair, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Policies and caretaker Minister of Labour and Social Policy Lazar Lazarov said additional work would be done on including the proposals tabled by the Health Ministry.

Lazarov stressed that the draft ordinance is supported by the National Council for Persons with Disabilities. Lazarov pointed out that the draft ordinance attempts to eliminate inaccuracies in determining the type and degree of disability, which in most cases do not take into account a series of concomitant diseases. 

The proposed draft also envisages that many diseases will be determined for life, which will create conditions for easing the work of both medical committees and people. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, this will remove the obligation to recertify in the presence of definitive diseases.

Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association head Vassil Velev said that the expertise should not end with equating the percentage of disability and the percentage of incapacity for work because there is no equality between one and the other. 

Now the expertise ends with the finding of "unfit" and the receipt of a small pension, instead of measures to determine residual working capacity, the need for retraining, rehabilitation and integration of people back into the labour market when they have residual working capacity for other positions, jobs and specialties. That is why the Association does not support the changes made: they are cosmetic and in some cases a step backwards instead of two steps forward, Velev said.

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CITUB) President Plamen Dimitrov declared support for the proposed draft ordinance.

Vanya Grigorova, economic adviser of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, also expressed support for the proposals.